Montreal, Capture of (1760)

Dictionary of American History
COPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc.

MONTREAL, CAPTURE OF (1760)

MONTREAL, CAPTURE OF (1760). The spirits of the French had been raised by the success of François Gaston de Lévis at Sainte Foy on 28 April 1760, but not for long. On 15 May the vanguard of the English ships appeared below Quebec. Lévis, abandoning hope of help from France, raised the siege and retreated up the river. The British plan to take Montreal had been carefully prepared. While Gen. Geoffrey Amherst descended the Saint Lawrence River, Gen. James Murray, with another army and the fleet, moved up the river, and Col. William Haviland approached by way of Lake Champlain. At Amherst's demand, on 8 September 1760 the governor, Pierre François de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil-Cavagnal, surrendered Montreal, and with it Canada.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Wrong, George M. The Fall of Canada: A Chapter in the History of the Seven Years' War. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1914.

Montreal, Capture of (1775)

Dictionary of American History
COPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc.

MONTREAL, CAPTURE OF (1775)

MONTREAL, CAPTURE OF (1775). After Ethan Allen's failed coup de main in September 1775, the main body of the American force under Gen. Richard Montgomery took Saint John's, Newfoundland, on 2 November and pushed on toward Montreal. Because the city's fortifications were weak, Gov. Guy Carleton made no attempt to defend it, and, on 11 November, slipped away with the garrison down the river toward Quebec. American batteries at Sorel barred the way, and the flotilla and the troops were captured; but Carleton himself reached Quebec safely. On 13 November the American troops marched into Montreal without encountering resistance. The city remained in American hands until 15 June 1776.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Burt, Alfred LeRoy. The Old Province of Quebec. Toronto: McCelland and Stewart, 1968.

George M. Wrong, Canada and the American Revolution. New York: Cooper Square Publishers, 1935.